Preview

Eudora Welty's Why I Live At The P. O.

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
963 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Eudora Welty's Why I Live At The P. O.
“Why I Live at the P.O.” The image of home life in Why I live at the P.O, Eudora Welty depicts the damage to one’s feelings of self worth in response to the sense of belonging in a family. Sister, who is the narrator in Why I live at the P.O.,(Welty) is disturbed when her sister, Stella Rondo returns homes with an adopted child, Shirley-T, after separating from her husband (Welty). Sister has lived in her sister’s, Stella Rondo’s shadow her entire life. Over the years, resentment and jealously has manifested in Sister towards her sister Stella Rondo. The rest of the family is delighted to see Stella Rondo and the child. Sister makes the assumption that Shirley-T is the biological child of Stella and her husband (Welty). The story is told from Sisters twisted point of view seeking sympathy from her readers. As the story begins, she immediately builds her case against her family revealing past hurt, judgment, and jealousy which cause the family to have a communication break down throughout the entire story. In Why I live at the P.O., Eudora Welty uses diction, …show more content…
The isolation continues as she decides to move out. In Why I live at the P.O., (Whetly) the post office represents freedom and solitude. It is a place that she will be able to call her own, while getting a way from her family. She will not be totally free because she is escaping to a place that was provided to her by her father. Honest communication has been unattainable for this family. The family decided to increase the solitude by agreeing not to communicate with Sister while she resides at the P.O. (Welty). Shirley-T quickly picks up the traits of the Rondo family. As Sister prepares herself to leave her home, Shirley-T sticks her tongue out at Sister. This behavior exhibits the family traits that are yet to be broken. She has picked up the bad habits of the broken family that Stella Rondo introduced her
Continue Reading
View Writing Issues

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    Eudora Welty's 'Chapter Thirty'
    • 98 Words
    • 1 Page

    Eudora Welty's 'Chapter Thirty'

    The days of the raining month will seize the time this year in the gaps which the concrete wall preserves. And, as the periods bequeath their places to the ensuing seasons, the varying chromatic visages descend the stairs towards my premier age.…

    • 98 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Stella Rukhman Research Paper
    • 912 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Stella Rukhman Research Paper

    Having been an English teacher back in Latvia, she was not entirely lost with the language, but she had only learned British English, so she still had a lot of difficulty in pronunciation and unfamiliar words. She joined her sister here in their house, then owned by the brother of her father’s friend. (It has since been bought by her sister, Eleanora, who still lives there with her husband.) She considers herself a lucky immigrant for having such connections, which made their journey easier. While housing wasn’t an issue, Stella was concerned about raising her children in this new culture that she didn’t know. She considered her children a priority and worried about the amount of individuality here, unlike the expected norm that people were expected to follow in Latvia. She didn’t like what was shown on TV and worried that the extremes in the culture may hurt them. She tried to find her own way of parenting, find a place in this new country where there were more choices than she had…

    • 912 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Societal Norms In Edna Pontellier's The Awakening
    • 225 Words
    • 1 Page

    Societal Norms In Edna Pontellier's The Awakening

    Since many societal standards were created to limit people’s potentials, conforming everyone to societal norms can have a detrimental impact on people’s ability to stay part of the society. When people are not able to pursue their passion they can turn to extreme measures. In Edna’s scenario her resolution is tragic. She is married to a man whom she has never ardently loved. Bound to the domesticity and submissiveness that a wife should present, Edna’s yearnings for an independent life never come to fruition. In the end, imbued with grief and despair, she decided to take her life. However, it is evident from her last introspction that her family is indeed an integral part of her life since “She thought of Léonce and the children. They were…

    • 225 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    The Chrysalids By John Wyndham: Character Analysis
    • 568 Words
    • 3 Pages

    The Chrysalids By John Wyndham: Character Analysis

    In the novel “The Chrysalids” by John Wyndham, religion is the most important aspect of everyones lives. They believe in the true image of god, and that all else is the devil and must be killed. For most, they would sacrifice their own children for god, yet for some people their children are more important. Mothers love their children over their religion. Some examples covered in this essay are Sophie, Aunt Harriet and The Spider-Man.…

    • 568 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    'One Writers Beginning' By Eudora Welty: The Voice
    • 1028 Words
    • 5 Pages

    'One Writers Beginning' By Eudora Welty: The Voice

    In “One Writers Beginning” Eudora Welty’s Speaks of “The Voice”. She describes this as human and inward. The voice is not hers but “the voice” of the reading; a cadence if you will. We will explore how Welty’s voice that runs like a pulse through her will lead to what she describes as the “The stamps” of her life. Welty’s stamps will form her deepest learning experiences and dance nicely next to her imagination from early childhood and into her adultlife.We will ponder and think about how and what pulse, stamps and ‘the voice” means to Welty’s and attempt to incorporate them into our interpretations drawing from both hers and our personal experiences.…

    • 1028 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    The Glass Castle By Jeanette Walls Analysis
    • 532 Words
    • 3 Pages

    The Glass Castle By Jeanette Walls Analysis

    As the reader, I can tell that she is extremely happy when she said, “when we pulled up in front of the house on North Third Street, I could not believe we were actually going to live there” (94). She had never even been close to a house of this size. The neighborhood wasn’t all that…

    • 532 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    The Glass Castle Jeannette Walls Analysis
    • 1042 Words
    • 5 Pages

    The Glass Castle Jeannette Walls Analysis

    Their family always was pleased and in check with the bills for the first few months when they moved to a new house. Two places where they stayed the longest was Phoenix and Blue Mountain. In both areas Dad found good paying job as miner or electrician in a mine and for the first few months all the family’s needs were full filled according to the writer. However, when dad lost his job, things around the house would go back into chaos and left mom no choice but to teach and this made life better with their needs met again. During these days everyone was happy and the children received presents regularly like a new bicycle. These events were when the most smiles and happiness in kids was shone off. Finally towards the end of the book everyone moved to New York City and from beginning to end in their stay everyone was joyful. However their dad did die and Maureen moved to California after stabbing her mother but order was still there. Jeanette went to an Ivy League college and after graduating she became a journalist which was what she always wanted to be since high school. The author made this time seem very cheerful except when they talked about her parents in the streets. Towards the end the thanksgiving dinner brought the family all together witch it brought forth a conclusion worth reading. The Glass Castle states on the last paragraph “We raised our glasses. I could almost hear Dad chuckling at Mom's comment in the way he always did when he was truly enjoying something.” This showed at the end of all the pain and suffering there was true peace for their family at…

    • 1042 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    The Box Man Solitude
    • 415 Words
    • 2 Pages

    The Box Man Solitude

    She provides the two examples of the lady in the shop, having a lonely lifestyle and assumes that she is all alone, she has kids but don’t want to see her, and she also talks about the lady down the hall that spends her time watching tv all day, which would seem normal to us, this provides her with credibility or ethos.…

    • 415 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Tension To Peace In Joan Didion's On Going Home
    • 503 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Tension To Peace In Joan Didion's On Going Home

    In the essay, “On Going Home,” Joan Didion’s attitude toward “home” changes from dread of tension to peace that she wishes to give her daughter. Though Didion is now grown with a child of her own, her adult family life differs in many ways from the family life of her childhood. Returning home for her daughter’s first birthday, she her feelings change about the place she once dreaded.…

    • 503 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
    Read More
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Joyce Carol Oates's 'Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?'
    • 66 Words
    • 1 Page

    Joyce Carol Oates's 'Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?'

    In Joyce Carol Oates’s “Where are you Going, Where have you Been?” the characters Connie, who soon finds herself traveling somewhere she has never been as well as not knowing where that place is or what it means for her, and Arnold Friend , who Connie believes to be an ordinary 18 year-old boy, demonstrate duality through not only their actions, but their appearances as…

    • 66 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Jeanette Walls Reflection
    • 684 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Jeanette Walls Reflection

    The reason the book kept my attention was because it reminded me of my family. I perceived connections between the Walls family and mine through the relationship between Jeanette’s siblings and my brother and sister, the similarities between Rose Mary and my mother, and the resemblance of the Podlena family chemistry and the Walls’. These resemblances forced me to believe that I was reading about my family rather than Jeanette and her family. Some people might even say that the Podlena family is just as peculiar as the Walls’…

    • 684 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    I Stand Here Ironing
    • 569 Words
    • 2 Pages

    I Stand Here Ironing

    The central idea in this story seems to be the mother’s search of an understanding of her daughter’s personality and outlook on life. The majority of the story is the mother trying to depict reasons for why her daughter is the way she is, so delicate, reserved, needless, and even unhappy at times. She seems to also defend her parenting choices by making excuses or blaming the urges of others in order to not have all the blame on her. She speaks about how she had no other option but to put her in the care of someone else at the age of two, even though she knew the teacher was “evil” (Pg. 925). “It was the only place there was…the only way I could hold a job” (pg. 925).…

    • 569 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Why I Live at the P.O
    • 1143 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Why I Live at the P.O

    In this short story we meet Sister and four members of her family. The Protaganist of the story ia Sister , the oldest child of two girls, and her younger sister Stella-Rondo is the family favorite. It seems everything Sister wants, Stella-Rondo gets. Sister says that Stella-Rondo stole her boyfriend for it was Sister who had been dating Mr. Whitaker first until Stella- Rondo, being the jealous person she was told him that Sister was "one-sided," unequal on both sides. And that in-turn ended the relationship.Sisters real problem is that she is extreamly jelous of Stella-rondo. And she, Sister, at times can be a little selfish. For instance at the end Sister says to herself, "And if Stella-Rondo should come to me this minute, on bended knee, and attempt to explain the incidents of her life with Mr. Whitaker, I'd simply put my fingers in both my ears and refuse to listen" (153). That statement alone defines her jealously and selfishness towards her sister, because it seems Mr. Whitaker is the only thing she is really upset about for she makes no mention about any of the other family members,…

    • 1143 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Better Essays

    Joyce Carol Oates's 'Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?'
    • 3266 Words
    • 14 Pages

    Joyce Carol Oates's 'Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?'

    Reports of serial rapists and murderers are all too common in today’s day and age. In these cases, generally the main focus and intrigue lies with the killer rather than the victim. Once the focus is switched to the victim, we might see all sorts of different scenarios play out. Although Joyce Carol Oates’s, “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” was inspired by real life events and reports of a serial rapist murderer, it can also be read as a coming of age story in which we see the victim, Connie, mature and evolve tremendously from the beginning to the end of the story because of the situation she unfortunately finds…

    • 3266 Words
    • 14 Pages
    Better Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    On Going Home
    • 941 Words
    • 3 Pages

    On Going Home

    Joan's home-life is confusing with her family. She says that it is "dusty"� and full of "mementos"� from her life, which her husband holds no value to(p.134). Living in a dusty house symbolically shows that their lifestyle needs work, and that they both do not pay attention to the minute details. If little problems come up in their lives, they will block them out of their minds and let the dust collect. This is perhaps why she feels that there is a conflict between her home in Central Valley and Los Angeles. Joan validates that point by saying, "we miss each other's points, have another drink and regard the fire(p.134)."� She knows she missed her family, but she just can't find the words to let them know. Instead of confronting the problem, Joan acts like she does with her husband and lets the dilemma sit; once again nothing is solved.…

    • 941 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More

Related Topics